Youth center may be coming to Unionville

Photo by Matt Freeman
NEW EAST MARLBOROUGH SUPERVISORS
The 2014 East Marlborough board of supervisors gather last night. Pictured seated, from left: Buzz Hannum, John Sarro. Standing, from left: Robert Weer, Eddie Caudill and Cuyler Walker.

A new proposal to create a community youth center in Unionville is just in the talking stages right now, and some of the talk happened Monday night at the East Marlborough Township Board of Supervisors’ first monthly meeting of 2014.

Kathy Brown, a former Unionville-Chadds Ford School District board member, told the supervisors that a group was discussing the possibility of creating a youth center where young people would “be able to hang out, for lack of a better term” with a variety of activities open to them.

Brown said one possible site would be a barn the school district owns, which would be within walking distance of the middle and high schools. The barn would need to be renovated, she said, but the Unionville-Chadds Ford Education Foundation was interested in helping fund the project.

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According to Brown, the activities at the center would resemble those at The Garage in Kennett Square, with tutoring, games such as ping-pong, and opportunities for young musicians to perform among them. “These things evolve to suit the needs of the community,” Brown said, adding that The Garage was willing to affiliate with the proposed center.

The center would be staffed with full-time paid employees and would likely have about 60 young people there daily, and would also serve seniors and other adults in the community, Brown said.

Cuyler Walker, chairman of the supervisors, said the barn was in a residential district, and the limitations on permitted uses there meant that the organizers should think about seeking a zoning change or variance from the township if they wanted to pursue using the site.

The supervisors approved a conditional use order that allows R. Brooke Stryker, a chiropractor with offices in Wilmington and Toughkenamon, to open a new office at 910 Baltimore Pike, in a zoning district where such a business requires a conditional-use order for approval.

The owners of the land the new chiropractic office is located on also own 908 Baltimore Pike, just east of the new business, where an existing home and garden business operates. To avoid potential traffic hazards, the order requires the owners to put up signs making the eastern driveway the entrance for both businesses, and the western one the exit.

The supervisors also approved the road closings and other accommodations for the 2014 Unionville Run for our Sons 5K, which takes place April 5 and benefits research on Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Paul Johnson, one of the race’s organizers, said the race has been averaging 600 participants a year and has “become a big community event in our eyes.”

The race will start at the Charles F. Patton Middle School campus in Unionville and traverse various area roads.

Walker also swore in John Sarro, a newly elected member of the board of supervisors, and Richard Hannum, who was reelected to another term.